Eurydike

Eurydike stands in Copenhagen’s Kongens Have, inside the Hercules Pavilion among the garden’s historic avenues. Giovanni Baratta’s marble figure portrays Eurydice, the Greek mythological figure lost to the underworld. Orpheus and Hercules occupy neighbouring niches, creating a classical group within the pavilion.

The three sculptures came to Copenhagen from Italy in the early eighteenth century. The Hercules figure dates from 1702, while the other two joined it in the royal collection. C. F. Harsdorff remodelled the pavilion in the 1770s, when Baratta’s sculptures were installed there. Music once travelled from its lower floor to guests gathered above.

Christian IV initiated the garden around 1606 to supply the royal court with fruit and vegetables. J. C. Krieger later shaped a Baroque garden with fountains, statues and clipped boxwood hedges. Central avenues and flower beds still show the earlier layout, while the park’s public history began in the late eighteenth century.